Chinese smartphone vendors, particularly Huawei, scrambled to stock up components in the second-quarter of 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions. Such precautionary orders sharply boosted second-quarter smartphone AP shipments, but are set to undermine shipments in the third quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest China Smartphone AP quarterly report. In the IT sector, new products from Nvidia, AMD and Intel are expected to generate some growth momentum for the motherboard and graphics card vendors in the second half of 2019, but extent of growth will be limited by uncertainty of the trade war. In the memory sector, a seasonal pick-up in demand amid supply constraints has rallied NAND flash wafer pricing.
China smartphone AP shipments to drop 7.6% in 3Q19, says Digitimes Research: Smartphone application processor (AP) shipments to China vendors registered a larger-than-expected increase sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, thanks to deliveries made in advance to avoid the burden of potential tariffs from the US, according to Digitimes Research.
Motherboard, graphics card vendors to see shipments grow in 2H19: Thanks to seasonality and new products from Nvidia, AMD and Intel, motherboard and graphics card vendors, particularly Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI), are expected to see rising shipments in the second half of 2019 though the extent of growth will be restrained by the US-China trade tensions, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
NAND flash wafer prices rise above cash cost levels: NAND flash wafer prices have been rising in the third quarter of 2019, and have exceeded manufacturers' cash cost levels, according to industry sources.